A Lambton Public Health promoter believes that e-cigarettes should be distributed on a prescription basis just like any other nicotine replacement therapy.
Evan Stevens told Seaway Kiwanians Tuesday that nearly one in four youth are vaping on a regular basis.
He said the health unit is trying to educate local youth and the community about the dangers of e-cigarettes and vaping.
"They're doing it to cope with whatever is going on in their lives, some are doing it just to fit in or to be cool, some do it because it tastes good or it's fun, and a lot of them just don't understand the risks," said Stevens. "We've had a few reports from students using in eighth grade, sometimes it's even younger, but grade eight to grade nine is the prime time when a lot of youth are starting and that's where we're seeing a lot of the issues."
Stevens said the big nicotine companies are marketing e-cigarettes to younger people to create a new generation of consumers.
"We kind of refer to these companies as a 'trojan horse' -- they're presenting it as this great cessation object, but based off their marketing practices and some of the e-juices, it's really just a way for them to introduce nicotine to a new swath of consumers," he said. "So they call it healthier instead of less harmful or less risky. They're saying that it's health promotion instead of risk reduction, which is what they should be going for."
Stevens said a majority of users 24 and under have never smoked cigarettes before, so they're starting directly with vapes, which was originally a product designed to help smokers quit.
He said the e-juices, the liquid content in an e-cigarette cartridge, is the lifeblood of the e-cigarette.
"It has those flavours in it, nicotine sometimes, and it's those flavouring aspects that are really inviting to students and young people -- it's that cotton candy, they got watermelon, creme brulee, Sour Patch Kid flavours. So the flavour profiles are for young people and they're attractive because they're tasty and you can smell them."
Stevens said there are several chemicals in vapes that are known to cause cancer.
"You're vaping and it's not vapour, it's an aerosole, so it's solid or liquid particles that are getting into your lungs and sitting there and it's causing an immune reaction and that immune reaction is causing inflammation, and that's causing that kind of respiratory failure and it looks exactly like bacterial pneumonia."
Stevens said along with cigarettes, vaping comes with many negative side effects.
"Even if a Juul is say 47 milligrams per millilitre, you're getting a cigarette pack's worth of nicotine in that one pod, and some people are going through one pod in three hours, and if they're doing it constantly, they're going through two or three pods which is two or three packs of cigarettes each day," he said. "Nicotine permanently alters the brain structure, function and its abilities to send signals. One of the main reasons young people use it is to cope with depression, anxiety or stress, but in turn, it's causing more of those issues."
Stevens said they're doing everything they can at Lambton Public Health to address the situation.
"So we're doing school presentations, we're doing teachers PD days, so we're educating the students as well as the teachers. We're coming up with a whole kind of program of different tools, we're meeting with vice principals at schools just to try and develop it to find out the best ways to get this information out to teachers."